Overcoming Struggles to Discover Your Strength, with Danny Kavadlo

Are you getting stronger in relation to where you are right now? How can you tell?

We’re glad to have Danny Kavadlo back on the GMB Show as he and Ryan talk candidly about what it really takes to build both a strong body and a strong self.

You’ll get Danny’s take on what he believes to be universal standards of strength and learn a concept he calls “adaptive strength” – building both internal and external strength that enables you to fully engage in what life has for you in the moment.

You’ll hear:

(02:24) Learn why is Danny focusing on bodyweight exclusively.

(08:30) What are Danny’s Universal standards for strength both physical and non-physical?

(14:40) Here’s the real reason why you’re not gaining strength.

(15:48) Are you outcome or progress based in your thinking? And why that matters.

In order to truly measure how you’re progressing in building strength, Danny recommends that you stop comparing your level of strength with that of others and where they’re at in their process. Focus on your own process and you’ll have all the feedback necessary for consistently getting stronger.

In life you are confronted with the unexpected and what can’t be controlled. Are you strong enough to take whatever obstacle is in front of you, embrace it, take it in, rise over it, learn from it, and adapt to it?

True strength is sustained by working on ourselves and our own evolution.

“Strength is really adapting to the circumstances you are presented with.”

Danny Kavadlo is one of the world’s foremost authorities on calisthenics, nutrition and personal training.

Danny is famous for his minimalist philosophy, simple approach and unsurpassed results. Danny is a Master Instructor for Dragon Door’s Progressive Calisthenics Certification and has been featured in the NY Times, TRAIN, 20/20, Men’s Fitness and more. He is also a regular contributor to Bodybuilding.com

Ryan: Hey everybody, welcome to the GMB Show today. I’ve got one of my friends, Danny Kavadlo on here. How you doing Danny?

Danny: I am spectacular and it is amazing to be here today with you Ryan. It’s been awhile.

Ryan: It has been awhile. I always love talking with you, man. The thing is, because you’re so low key, you don’t get hyped up or excited at all, so it’s always kind of a chill interview. Listen, for those of you who don’t know Danny, let me introduce him here. One of the world’s authorities on calisthenics, nutrition, personal training, flies all over the world. He does, just teaches everywhere, really known for his minimalist philosophy, feats of strength, motivational gifts. He’s got a couple books out. He’s got a number one best seller, Diamond Cut Abs. We talked about that last time, right?

Danny: Yes sir.

Ryan: As well, everybody needs training. He’s got a new book out and we’ll mention a little bit about it at the end of the interview, but today really we’re going to be talking about strength and why it’s important because hey, you know, I know that strength is great. We all got to have the strength, but I think that hearing what you have to say about this is very important and let’s just jump right into it. Is that cool? Anyway, before we start out, how you been? I want to hear a little bit about what’s new with you, what’s going on, man?

Danny: I mean, life is ever changing. It’s ever progressing. There’s always things happening and you mentioned strength earlier and you know, strength, it’s really adapting to the circumstances that you’re presented with. As life changes, as things evolve, true strength is persevering through everything, through the hand that you’re dealt, getting stronger, getting better, not just in spite of your circumstances but even because of your circumstances. Whatever I’m going through, it doesn’t matter man. I’m always getting stronger every day, Ryan.

Ryan: I love it man. That’s what it’s about. I like to say, why are you strong? Our question is what are you strong for? You’ve got to have that why. It can’t just be, you know, I just want to do a lot of barbell whatever or something like that, just to get stronger. It’s got to have that why for your life and that’s what I love about you and what you’re doing. You know, let’s get into a couple of the questions and I just mentioned barbells, but you and I don’t use barbells really. I know you did in the past though but why are you just focusing on body weight right now?

Danny: Well you know, it’s funny because a lot of people say to me, hey Danny, they’re like, why are you the calisthenics guy? Why are you focused on calisthenics? I know you used to lift a lot of weights. I know you were doing the bench presses, the barbells squats, the dead lifts, what is it about the calisthenics, about the body weight that’s attracting you to it now? The truth is, I’ve always been attracted to body weight training. I mean, I’m 41 years old. I was born August 9th, 1974 in a scorching hot summer in Brooklyn, New York and when I started working out, it was calisthenics, that’s it man.

I have two brothers. We had push up contests, we did pull up contests. This is what we did. I didn’t even know we were doing body weight, I just thought I was trying to not get my ass kicked when I walked home from school. When I was a teenager, yes, I discovered strength training, weight training, external resistance, barbell training, call it what you will and I squatted my barbells and I bench pressed my barbells and I overhead pressed my barbells and to be perfectly clear, there’s a lot of distinction right now. The calisthenics enthusiasts are very quick to say hey, the calisthenics body is what we all want.

The street workout people are saying hey, the street workout body not the body building body and then the barbell people are saying hey man, I lift weights. The truth is, listen man, strength training is strength training. The body moves the way the body moves and whether you’re swinging a kettle bell, whether you’re lifting a barbell, whether you’re doing a pull up, if you’re working hard and you’re putting in the time and effort to manifest change within your body, then you’re doing a service to yourself and everybody else in the whole damn universe.

As far as I’m concerned, I’ve done my pull ups, I’ve done my push ups, I’ve done my body weight, I’ve lifted my barbells, I threw my sandbags, I’ve swung my kettle bells. Right now, for the past several years, I like to focus on body weight. The thing that appeals to me about body weight is the minimalism of it. When you do body weight strength training, you don’t need the barbell. You have just yourself and the environment around you. My feet are barefoot on the floor as I do a pistol squat. My hands have no gloves as I’m on the pull up bar. I don’t need any external equipment.

It’s the minimalism, it’s the purity, it’s the simplicity and that, after going through so many things, body weight, barbells, kettle bells, machines, sandbags, isolation equipment, that’s what’s brought me back to the purity of the minimalism of the body weight strength training and that’s really what I’m all about right now.

Ryan: Dude I love that, I mean, there’s so many good things you just said in there. I agree with it all. It’s not about just thinking you have to do one way or our way is better than the other. It’s about getting stronger and we all have different ways to do that. It’s that, it’s a way of creating our own music in a sense, you know, because you’re a musician and stuff, this is our song that we’re trying to create and this is how we do it. Just what you said that when we’re looking at getting stronger, so what does strength mean to you then?

We talked about now you’re into the body weight thing, not that you probably don’t go back and maybe do that every once in awhile, I don’t know, but the thing is what does strength mean to you and more importantly, how do we get it? How do we get that strength?

Danny: How do we get that strength? That’s a good question. You know, strength, we tend to focus on the physical aspects of strength. What’s your bench, what’s your squat or in the calisthenics community, can you do that muscle up, can you do that pistol squat, how many pull ups can you do, but the truth is that strength is about bettering yourself. Strength is about empowering yourself. Strength is about walking through the fire and getting stronger. Strength is about putting in the hours and the effort, the time, the patience and the discipline over days and weeks and months and years and coming out stronger.

How do we get stronger man? I don’t know, it’s a great question. We get stronger by putting in the hours and the effort and it’s a funny thing because there’s so much focus on instant gratification. On instant results, on all these things that we’re constantly being bombarded with through the media, perpetrated here, this, that, whatever and the truth is, nobody gets results from anything unless they’re prepared to put in time, effort and discipline. That’s really strength to me. If you’ve never done your first pull up and you finally did your first pull up, then you’re getting stronger, brother.

If you can do 20 pull ups right now and you nail your first muscle up, then you’re getting stronger right now brother and that’s what I’m talking about today, getting stronger for where you are in your place in the universe. Not compared to anybody else, screw that man. Compare it to where you are and bettering yourself, empowering yourself and getting stronger.

Ryan: Hell yeah, man. You know something, with my days in judo is my coach always told me just step on the mat. There are days when you’re not, when you don’t want to do it. You know, like what you said too, don’t compare yourself to other people because we are us. We need to focus on us. Just step on the mat. Have the discipline to just say, okay today I’m just going to go a little bit further and that little bit becomes a lot down the line. Doesn’t matter where you are right now, you got to start, you got to stick with it, get strong, I love it.

Kind of going off on a little bit of a different direction here, but if we look at weight lifting, right? We see people and they have their strength standards and it might be like, for example, like a double weight body squat or body weight squat, what do you think about universal standards for strength?

Danny: That’s a great question because if you are a competitor, right you got those standards, the double body weight squat, 2.5 body weight dead lift, you know, you have these things, they absolutely exist in the strength training community but just to talk about pure functional strength, pure tensile strength, not so much in your ability to move a foreign object but in your ability to navigate yourself spatially throughout the universe. I would say, a general standard, maybe not a benchmark, but a standard in terms of strength, I mean I think anybody before embarking on any advanced strength training or calisthenics training should be able to do a good 40 [inaudible 00:09:15] squats.

Any man should be able to do a solid 30 perfect push ups before embarking on anything advanced like a one armed push up. If we’re talking about hanging from the bar, working that front chain, maybe 20 hanging knee raises and I’d say 10 pull ups is a solid standard that any grown man should be able to do. Now, not everybody’s going to be able to do that right now today, but that’s a good thing that everyone can work for. Once you’ve met those standards, well then we can take it a little bit farther.

Ryan: Nice, nice.

Danny: [inaudible 00:09:48] for a short answer, 40 squats, 30 push ups, 20 hanging knee raise, 10 pull ups and no coincidence, that’s what we call the century test. It’s 100 reps, that’s what we do in our PCC, you know our progressive calisthenic certification, before you can be branded as an ambassador of calisthenic strength training, and that’s the benchmark that we want to achieve.

Ryan: Cool. All right; so let’s go into the next question here. I’m going to read this off because what about the nonphysical? We talked about the physical. Maybe there’s some standards but how would you gauge someone’s strength beyond the physical? Pretty deep question but, you know …

Danny: That is a very serious question. How do we gauge someone’s strength beyond the nonphysical? I mean, there’s a lot of ways in this world that we can show our strength beyond the pull-up bar, beyond the dip station, beyond the bar lever and the almighty pistol squat. How do we show our strength? I mean, I believe that real strength comes from community.

Ryan: Nice. Yeah.

Danny: Something that I try to instill upon my son is to good for other people. I try to practice an act of kindness everyday. If I could help someone carry their groceries across the street, I’m going to do it. I live in New York city. We’re about to walk all winter. There’s going to be two feet of snow before I even know it. Me and my son, my neighbor to my left, my neighbor to my right, they’re about ninety years old, man. We shovel their steps. We shovel their sidewalk every single winter. Now that is strength.

What else is strength? Strength is trying to rise beyond the negativity. If I look at the daily news, if I look at the nighttime evening news or even my damn Facebook feed, all I’m going to see is negativity. I’m going to see cops shooting civilians. I’m going to see civilians shooting cops. I’m going to see all types of terrible crises. What I need to do to provide strength is to rise above that and walk out my front door everyday and try to provide something positive for the universe. Take out the garbage, pick up a piece of trash off the floor and throw over the garbage can. I made the community a better place.

So, how do we define strength? It’s a great question, man. Yes, it’s pull-ups but it’s also improving your life and the lives of the people around you and giving a little back to the community. My son, I picked him up from school today, man. This is really cool. He talked to me about a food drive they were having because Thanksgiving is coming.

Ryan: Oh yeah.

Danny: What we can donate, what we can do, what we can bring? He’s like, “Dad, I’m really lucky because I have a trampoline in my backyard”, and then he says, “Dad, I’m really lucky that I have a backyard.” He is absolutely right.

I’m talking about what we can do to contribute to help other people. Now that’s strength, man. A nine-year-old kid that’s thinking like that, he’s thinking about strength. Not how many jumps he can do on the trampoline but that he’s lucky to even have a trampoline. Strength is really big, man. That’s my answer to that one.

Ryan: I love it. You know, and you’re good. The thing that’s really cool is that you’re a great role model for your son, right? I think that’s a big part of it too; and you mentioned community is working together and, unfortunately, let’s be honest, in the fitness community that we’re in, there’s a lot of people who just seem to want to just argue all the time. I don’t get it. I know you don’t get it. I don’t see why we all just can’t appreciate each other and understand that we’re a little bit different and learn from each other. Hey, that’s another topic for another time; but…

Danny: I would say it’s about that. This is for everybody who’s listening right now. Because in the community wide, in the fitness community, there is a lot of dogma, there’s a lot of stigma, there’s a lot of, “If you’re doing this, you’re doing it wrong. You’re doing that, you’re doing that wrong”, and the truth is, just don’t indulge it, right? I get a lot of people giving me love and I get a lot of people giving me hate. For every person that says, “Hey Danny, you motivated me”, there’s another person saying, “Oh, look at you, chicken leg, ba ba ba ba, da da da da”, there’s that; and the truth is, just don’t indulge it, don’t get into it. When you argue with the hater, there’s going to be two fools in the room instead of one. You just got to leave it alone. Always take the high road is what I’m trying to say.

Ryan: Nice. I so like it, man. Then, how can we do this? How can we then become stronger? A lot of people have this problem. How can we become stronger, both physically … Well, let me rephrase that … Not even how can we become but why do people have trouble with this? Just like what we’re saying. You do have those haters and things … It happens to me all the time too. Get people who love your work, but then other people are just like, “Dude…”, you know, whatever. I’m just like, “Okay, great.” Well, I think there’s something … There’s a strength that they’re not really getting there. Why do you feel that people have trouble getting strong, both mentally and physically? Another very deep question, a tough question to answer but, yeah.

Danny: I mean, sometimes we focus on the wrong things. As a culture, here, we’re very goal oriented. We’re not very process oriented. If you’re goal oriented, you’re going to say, “I’m going to get 10 pull-ups by January 1”, or “I’m going to get a one arm pull up by January 1”, or “I’m going to get that muscle up by January 1.” That’s thinking very much about the goal. Now, make no mistake. It’s good to have goals. I believe in visualizing goals, and I believe in actualizing goals. But, sometimes putting that time frame on things, makes things very difficult. We’re just very goal oriented and not enough process oriented. When we focus on the process, we can focus on the day to day activities. They’re going to help us with that.

Look, man. We all have goals. When I was younger, [just by 00:05:44] 2006, right? I became obsessed with the one arm pull up. I saw some kids in Tompkins Square Park doing a one arm pull up. I was already 31 at the time. I’m just close a little too much now. 2006, I saw these kids doing a one arm pull up in Tompkins Park and I was like, “I have to do this. I have to do this. I have to do this.” I gave myself tendinitis trying to get to it because I didn’t respect the journey. I was so focused on the goal and consequentially what happened is I had to not do any upper body strength training for like four freaking months, when my biceps tendon’s healed. Then, finally, in 2013, I got my first one arm pull up. Seven years later; because I backed up. I decided, “Hey, I’m going to do a lot of things. I’m going to enjoy my work out. I’m going to focus on other aspects and just goal, goal, goal, goal, goal.”

All we know is pain sometimes. All we know is goal sometimes. All we know is focus on this, that and the other things sometimes but really what are the things, you know, you ask the first question about the body weight training, first the barbel training. One of the things that I love, that I enjoy so much about the calisthenics and body weight strength training is that it really embraces this playful side. When we get focused on that one rep max, with that physical goals, the one arm chin, we get detached from the process that we get there and I feel like so much of calisthenics, whether we’re doing a flip or whether we’re doing a push up, is a lot more playful and is a lot less goal oriented. I really enjoy that.

Ryan: I love it too. I mean, something else too. Coming back to something you mentioned is these goals and looking at these things and let’s be honest, people tend to over-complicate things; and what I really like about you is coming back to something, excuse me, I don’t know, that was in my mouth; but actually you mentioned this in your new book, Strength Rules, is that minimalism. That is so important. It is cutting away the fact, do you really need to be doing all this stuff? No. Chances are no. If you want to talk a little bit that. How do we focus on that minimalism? How do we figure out what we need and what we should be working on?

Danny: We’re in a very product driven environment. I have this conversation with somebody, just yesterday, I was working out with him and we’re talking about all these esoteric machines and gadgets and gizmos that exist within the gym and within the strength training community; and that’s something we’re really, really getting into. It’s like, well you know, the body moves the way the body moves. I got my squat, I got my hinge, I got my body flexion, I got my horizontal push, my overhead push, my horizontal pull, my overhead pull, but until the evolution changes and the elbow will be a bow and socket instead of the hinge joint, the body is going to move the way the body moves. Sometimes we really just have to cut beyond the products.

Modern day gym has only been of existence for a few decades. Mankind has been moving the way the mankind has been moving since the dawn of evolution. We’ve been running, we’ve been jumping, we’ve been pushing, we’ve been pulling, we’ve been squatting, we’ve been lunging since the dawn of humanity. It’s only in the modern day when they had gym memberships to sell to people that they invented bilateral, lateral pull down machine or some other strength esoteric gadget to isolate a certain muscle or a chain of muscles and make every other muscle in your body rest.

It’s a tricky thing, man. I mean I think we need to focus on compound movements. I think we need to focus on self stability. I think we need to focus on that minimalism. How do we do it? We eliminate the bullshits. We cut out that which we don’t need and keep only the things that we do need. It’s a hard thing to really ascertain. We’re bombarded every single day with images, buy this product, whether it’s a shake way or a fat free hot pocket or whatever or a pharmaceutical pill, Lipitor to lower your cholesterol or a Viagra to race, whatever. We’re bombarded with things that we need. What do we need? What we need to do is take a back step and just simplify things and work on the very basics. That’s what we need to do. What do we need to do? We need to give what we got and do the best we can with whatever we have. That’s what we really to do.

Ryan: Yeah. I mean, again lots of good stuff coming out of this question. I think something too, you know, looking at the machines and all the gadgets and all the good stuff that’s coming out, it really takes our mind away from being in the moment, right? We don’t have to think about stuff anymore. It’s kind of just like, just do this and just kind of plug in. I think that we’re losing that awareness of really what’s important in that present. This is something that you talked about. What do think about, as far as that present, and how can we bring a better present and awareness back to our workouts, back to our movements or whatever we’re doing?

Danny: How do we bring awareness back to our movements? I mean, you have to just focus on what you’re doing, pay attention to details. It’s attentiveness. It’s pay attention to what you’re doing. Do only one thing at a time. Give what you’re doing your full attention. I don’t care if you’re doing a push up or cooking a meal or gardening or washing the dishes or painting your house. Take task one step at a time and give them your full attention. Do the best you can. If you are painting your house, take the time, use that blue tape and tape off the areas that you don’t want to smudge it. If you are doing your push up, take the time to flex those abs and flex those fluids and make sure that your body is on engine. If you’re pruning your garden, take the time to remove those weeds and keep the flowers that belong there. It’s about attention to detail, it’s about articulation, and it’s about designating time and respecting the process for certain things. With us cooking a meal for your family, we’re doing a workout.

Ryan: Basically, what you’re saying is when I do my squats, I shouldn’t be checking my Facebook account, while I’m doing it? Is that what you’re saying?

Danny: No.

Ryan: That’s okay, right?. That’s okay, right?

Danny: It’s that right? You see it.

Ryan: Not it. It’s just so … I mean, I’m just like, seriously? For real? All right, man. Let’s go into … We’re talking about a lot of the body weight kind of things, but I do know that a question, I get it on everyone, so I’m sure you get it all the time for supplements. What supplements are you taking? I got to be honest, I don’t take any supplements at all. I take, I do the fish oil thing, which is kind of funny with the amount of fish I eat; but I’m trying it out.

Danny: That’s in Japan, bro.

Ryan: I know. It’s just like … Exactly, right? I’m trying it out. I’m thinking, okay, I’m going to see how that goes; but I don’t take any other supplements. What about you? What are some of the things that people you think … Some of the things people get hop on? You have to have creatine, right? You got to have your [brand sheet amine 00:13:20], right?

Danny: People are shocked that I don’t take any supplements. In fact I had that book you mentioned. The number one app is on best seller, [time to cut abs 00:13:30]. It got this great review on one website and this guy was talking about all these great things about it. He was listing pro after pro after pro, and the way the site was form out of the [atelestic 00:13:42] con and the cons that he listed was does not endorse supplements. This is sensitive issue for some people.

Me personally, listen man. [I’m one into the height for 00:13:53] supplements for more years than I care to admit. I would … When I was a kid, I had this job at this restaurant in the city, right? I live in Brooklyn. I will ride the 23rd Street to Manhattan by bicycle. I wake up at 6am, I get on my bike, I run my bike to the city, about 10, 12 miles, I would set up the restaurant, then I would dissolves two scoops of creatine in the high carbohydrate beverage. I no longer eat creatine or high carbohydrate beverages at this point. Then I would have my protein powder after my workout, all this, all that. I’m proud to say that I’m 41 years old and I haven’t had a supplement, even weight protein in at least 10 years. It’s funny when I tell people that I don’t take supplements. They’re like, “Okay, yeah, but what protein powder do you use?” I’m like, “No, Jack. I don’t use any protein powder.”

Here’s what I do. I eat lots of plants and lots of animals. Okay? I tried to eat fruit and vegetables everyday. I read, Never Let Go by Dan John. He says, “Eat protein and fiber with every meal.” I’m like, you know what? That makes sense to me. Eat protein and fiber with every meal. I have protein and I have a vegetable with every meal. I read the Primal Blue Print by Mark Sisson, and he says, “Eat plants and animals.” That makes sense to me. Eat plants and animals. Okay. This morning, what did I have for breakfast? I cooked up a pound of bacon, I shared it with somebody. I [get 00:15:14] a pound of bacon, cooked it out. I fried up some broccoli and onions in the bacon grease, I put the bacon back, I fried up the whole thing together, put on some hot pepper flakes, squeeze some lemon juice on it, then that’s breakfast. Bacon, broccoli, onion, lemon juice. Okay. That’s cool.

To me, I got everything I need. I don’t really need supplements. I found that now that I don’t have any supplements, not even protein powder, I mean I’m leaner and I’m stronger. I mean, I’m 41 years old, man. I could outrun, out think and out lived who I was when I was 21. To me, the supplements just don’t make any sense.

Ryan: I love it that you and I, as we get older, we’re getting better.

Ryan: All right, man. I want to go into some, not personal but kind of some fun questions for you. What are some of your go-to strength moves, some of the things you’re doing? Like, you. I’m not talking about what you would have somebody else. I’m talking you, man. Some of the things you do right now, you’re like in a what? I love doing this. What are some of those things?

Danny: I mean, my favorite moves. I mean, look, just to be perfectly clear. I do the basics every time I train. I do my squats, I do my lunges, I do my push ups, I do my pull ups, I do my dips. That being said, some of my fun moves? I mean, the human flag, that’s my shit. Right? I mean, that’s my thing. I do human flag training. I’m finally able to get a full front lever off the bar. I’m able to hold it for a few seconds. It took me about seven years. It’s a process, like I said, right? Not goal oriented. We’re process oriented. I finally got my front lever down. I’m still working on improving.

The thing is I’m working on improving the skills that I’m very passionate about. I love the muscle up. I had the muscle up a long time but right now what I’m working on is getting it even cleaner. No bend at the knee, straight up over the bar. I’m working on improving all those calisthenic skills. My hand stand could always be improved. I have an arch on the back. Maybe I could do slightly less of an arch at the back or I maybe I can’t. These are things that I’m working on. Those are my things. Those are my fun things. One arm push ups, I work on them at least two days a week. I have for years.

It’s good you asked that, because a lot of people think that these are my morning moves. People see Youtube, or people see Instagram or people see these things, like all the one arm push up, the human flag, but these are things that I train frequently throughout the week. It’s a process. It’s attention to detail. You don’t suddenly own an exercise and there were goals. You keep working on it, you keep refining it, and you keep improving it and you don’t loose it. It becomes a part of who you are; but you don’t ever really own it because it owns you. You got to pursue it in order for it to be a part of your life.

Ryan: Constant process, yeah, I love it. That’s good.

Danny: Yeah.

Ryan: All right. What’s a little bit of final advice for our listeners? How do you get strong, and how do you stay strong for life?

Danny: I mean, those are both very good questions. I’m going to address them one at a time. How do you get strong? How do you get strong? You get strong with effort and attention and consistency. It doesn’t even matter what your workout is. If you’re working hard and you’re exerting and you’re pushing yourself and you’re doing it frequently, intensely and consistently, you will get strong.

How do you do it for life? Now, that’s a little bit harder for a question. How do we do it for life? Because in life, we are sometimes confronted with the unexpected. We’re sometimes confronted with things that we cannot control. It’s very easy on a piece of paper to say, “Okay. Monday and Tuesday, I’m doing this workout. Wednesday is my day off. Thursday, I’m doing that workout. Friday is cardio; and Saturday is legs or whatever the fuck it is.” Right? It’s very easy to say that. When we wake up in the world and we’re grown ups that live on the planet earth, sometimes things happen, and these things are not what we expect.

How do we stay strong? We stay strong by taking whatever obstacle is thrown at us and rising above it. We accept it, we embrace it, we take it in and we get stronger because of it. Every single one of us … I gone through a lot of crazy stuff in this last year, on a personal, deeply personal level. My world, my universe got rocked in this last year. I’m going to tell you right now, that’s one of the best thing that ever happened to me; because what that taught me is that no matter what life throws at you, you take it, you embrace it.

Sometimes you’re going to take a hit, sometimes you’re going to get knocked down; but you can’t doubt yourself; because no matter what your situation, you could be Danny Kavadlo, you could be Ryan Hersh, you could be anybody in any town in the world and we’re all going to be faced with our demons. We’re going to be faced with our doubts.

When you have those demons and when you have those doubts, you have to stand up and you have to challenge them. You have to look those doubts in the eye and challenge it, and say, “Hey, justify your existence.” Why does this doubt exist? Why can’t I surpass this? When you really make those doubts face themselves, face you, face me, right in the eye, they’re going to have to justify their existence and they’re going to have to explain themselves and they can’t; because everything that happens to you, everything that happens to me is a result of what we do. I could blame my ex-wife, [home grow 00:21:11], I could blame my ex-wife, man, I could blame the president of the United States of America, I could blame my boss, I could blame my friend, I could blame by family, but the truth is that everything, for better or for worse, that’s ever happened to me, is my own fault or my own cause. I made it happen.

Once we can embrace that and we can accept that, then we’re free and we can move forward and we can accept the change and not just be stronger in spite of the change but be stronger because of it. When you talk about strengths for life, it means respecting the world, respecting the journey and understanding that everything that happened is because of us, man. We choose our own faith. I’m not one to pass the book, man. I’m the first one … When I was a kid, I point a finger with somebody else, oh he did that. When I was a teenager, oh, whoo, and this and that. That was the hot sheet of the [madness 00:22:04]. But now, it’s like, as a grown ass man, it’s just we’re accountable for everything we have. For better and for worse. We can embrace that and work on that and make it for better.

How do we sustain the strength? We sustain the strength by working on ourselves and finding out who we really are and working on our own personal evolution.

Ryan: Nice. We have that choice. We can make that choice. We decide if we’re going to make it a positive one-

Danny: Everything.

Ryan: -or a negative one. Right?

Danny: You decide everything.

Ryan: I think this is a really good time to bring up your new book then, Strength Rules. The really cool about the book is it’s not … of course, you know, we’re talking about the physical but there’s a big mental side of it, in your book that I really like. Where can we get more information about this book? Where can we get more information about you and everything that you’re doing, man?

Danny: My book, I just got it in the mail today. Strength Rules. It is how to get stronger than almost anyone and the proven plan to make it real. This is not just any plus body weight strength training exercises. This is the personal journey, the spiritual journey, the emotional journey and the sustainability of walking to the fire of becoming out stronger because of it. This is everything. We’re talking about tensile strength within the muscles. I’m just looking up in random pages. We’re talking about things that make you go, uhmm, we’re talking about mysteries, we’re talking about, of course, the push up, we’re talking about, of course, the dip, we’re talking about everything here, beautifully illustrated, over 300 photographs, and original artwork.

Where do we get it? We get it at dragondoor.com, baby. Found out more more about Danny at dannythetrainer.com, baby. Hit me on Facebook. Facebook at dannythetrainer. This is where we find out about this stuff. The Strength Rules. Get it at dragondoor. Get it on Amazon, Kindle. Get it everywhere. This is it, man. This is the ultimate definitive work on true strength. Not body building strength of who’s going to win in the beauty pageant. This is not strength of who’s going to win in the sport specific workout. This is about real strength, pound for pound strength, tensile strength. Not so much in how to move a heavy object but how to navigate yourself throughout the universe. This is about strength in the head, in the heart, in the soul, in the body. This is Strength Rules by Danny Kavadlo. You need to buy it today. Is that all too hard?

Ryan: Oh, man, that’s good. Just take it up to 11, man. This [app got to 00:24:43] 11, that’s words at, right? I love it. [I’m working at 00:24:46] all the links here for you guys. Check that out. If you haven’t been following Danny on Facebook, lot of stuff that he post on there. As you can tell, he’s very passionate about what he does, and that’s why I love him so much.

All right, man. Thank you so much for chatting with me. It’s always a pleasure. Everyone, go out, get the book.